MUSCLE MAN CLEANING FLOORS? THAT'S A STEREOTYPE !!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story ... 10,00.html

EU says ad industry should change the way it depicts men and women
September 16, 2008


HE has a muscular physique and he attacks dirt and stains in your kitchens and bathrooms with a vengeance.

But now, a 50-year-old advertising icon, Proctor & Gamble's Mr Clean, might have met his match.

At least in Europe.


The European Parliament voted last week (504 to 110) to scold advertisers for 'sexual stereotyping' and recommended that the advertising industry should change the way it depicts men and women.

The lawmakers focused on a large number of advertising targets. For example, one print ad for Dolce & Gabbana had a woman in spike heels pinned to the ground and surrounded by sweaty men in tight jeans.

It fuels rape fantasies, the group scolded.

And an advertising icon, the muscular Mr Clean, was taken to task as well. Are you implying that only strong men are powerful enough to tackle dirt, queried the commission.

While the advertising industry isn't exactly quaking in its boots, the move, however laughable as a gesture of political correctness, may well provoke some debate among agency executives and their clients about the messages they are sending.

(That said, the people who approved the gender-stereotype measure are the same ones who suggested that all car advertisements should have warning labels because of the toxic impact of gas fumes.)

Nevertheless, this debate might lead to new laws being passed on gender stereotypes in advertising.

Explained Ms Mary Honeyball, a British lawmaker and a member of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, which developed the report: 'It might encourage the industry in Europe to improve.

'The report was passed by a big majority, and so there's recognition that there is a need to look at this. There is unacceptable stereotyping.'

The concern, according to the committee report, is that stereotypes in advertising can 'straitjacket women, men, girls and boys by restricting individuals to predetermined and artificial roles that are often degrading, humiliating and dumbed-down for both sexes.'

This isn't the first time the spotlight has been cast on how businesses advertise their products in Europe.

For example, in France, the Senate is considering a proposal to levy fines of up to 45,000 euros ($91,000), for advertisements that promote or incite anorexia.

Last year, the Spanish government demanded that Dolce & Gabbana pull its 'fantasy rape' advertisement in a country where headlines about violence against women are all too common.

The designers at the fashion house, based in Milan, relented, but not before observing in the Italian press that Spain was 'a bit behind the times' and that the ads were artistic in nature.

Then the ads were also withdrawn in Italy.

With this vote, the European Parliament is raising alarms not only about provocative images, but also about some that consumers might consider benign.

Ms Honeyball's naughty list includes an ad for LG Electronics featuring the muscular backside of a naked man who is facing a washing machine. The same advert also won an advertising award in Cannes.

But the list also includes a gray-suited businessman in a Lufthansa ad, and a Miele campaign that features a woman, potholder in hand, fawning over a cake in an oven.

Stereotypes can be entertaining

MrMalte Lohan, a spokesman for the World Federation of Advertisers, a trade association representing 55 national advertiser associations on five continents, said that his group was wary that the debate 'about the alleged role of advertising in gender discrimination keeps coming again and again.

'The essential concern that we have is that it is mixing two different things: gender stereotyping with discrimination and degrading images,' said Mr Lohan

'That's a real problem because stereotypes are not necessarily something that are bad. They can be totally harmless or quite entertaining.'

MsEva-Britt Svensson, a Swedish member of Parliament and author of the report on advertising images, said that, at this point, legislators were pressing simply for self-regulation among advertisers. But she also suggested that consumers could act.

'If they have more information and awareness about the impact of gender stereotypes,' she said, 'they can start boycotting products.' - NYT.